Why are certain demographics more "successful" than others? Asian-Americans, Jewish-Americans, and the LGBT community have higher household incomes and higher levels of education than the average Caucasian-American household. Conversely, African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans have lower levels. All experience various forms of discrimination.

Is it cultural? What are the cultural mechanisms for this? Maybe it's the type of discrimination these groups experience? Do regional economics (areas/cities where these demographics are more likely to live) factor into this?

For African Americans I think that it is a trickle down effect. Since it was illegal to teach a slave to read and write and former slaves literally couldn't teach their kids to read and write, it started a pattern. It had to be hard to get a good job without that knowledge.

In at nutshell, the ethnicities you mentioned value education and business ownership. Also, the common thing they have with the LGBT community is that they network and assist each other in becoming successful. However, every culture, ethnic group, sexual orientation class, has its over and under achievers. Don't fall into the trap of stereotyping people by any of those traits but accept each fellow human being for what and who they are. You are still young and seem to draw conclusions from statistics. Remember the Bell Curve is very wide and has outlyers on both sides. I grew up in the Bronx and thought if you weren't white you were a dumbass. I too had much to learn.

I'm Jewish and Jews have always placed a great emphasis on education, including higher education. The Asians I know say the same is true of their background. More education often leads to more opportunities, hence greater success.

Some people will say it's a class thing, and that might be partly true, but... A lot of it IS cultural appreciation for education. The L.A. Times just did a piece on a poor, immigrant neighborhood where kids from Mexico and China attend public school. Overwhelmingly the Chinese kids felt pressure from parents to do well in school. Also most of the Latino kids reported that family time was considered more important than homework time. That for whatever reason education just wasn't important to their parents. Amongst turn of the last century immigrant groups the European Jews were driven to educate their kids whereas the Italians and the Irish not so much.

The LGBT community is varied. My understanding is that gay and bisexual men have higher incomes but that childless gay women